With or without smoke a Rose will always be a Rose :)

Missed doing these macros, the ones that I first tried my hands on and made me fall in love with Macro , so had to go down memory lane for a few minutes before smoking it again

The first rose has such stunning colours that I just couldn't get myself to smoke it out and ruin the pure scent of the rose. Left that to the other ones, although still nice but not with the same vibrant colours as this one.

Can someone please tell me what colour background do you see on this first image? Is it more to the whitish or you notice a heavy bluish/greenish tinge on it?

I have a big problem with my secondary monitor, as its connected through USB port I cannot calibrate it properly. I post process it on my old one but when I look at it on my newer monitor it appears with different colours on it.

Thank you for your help

The background is a very pale blue/green at the top and more of a true blue near the bottom, darker to the bottom right hand corner.

Thanks Buddhy, that is very helpful,

Pretty hard to resist the smoke , its quite an addiction

Who can see a swimmer here in this image?

The first one doesn't work for me Amin, far too bright and I don't think the blue/green background complements the rose. Sorry buddy. Looks same as Buddhy describes it on my monitor as well.

The second shot is up to your usual high standard....Awesome

Thank you Cliff, Really appreciate your comment. That was really helpful as I am not really sure about that first one so hearing any critiques and comments really help me improve those little beauties

Cant make my mind up with the third one, the angle of the flower looks wrong to me

I don't mind the pale blue background. What really grabs me is the sheer razor sharp quality and colour of the rose in the first picture. I also like No. 2 a lot, there is lovely delicate quality in that too. No. 3 is good but doesn't compete with your first two. I was surprised you didn't enter the weekly competition for 'Smoke.'
david

Hi David
thanks for your comments. Really appreciate it.
I usually work on these shots to unwind after a stressful day or when I am very bored. I knew about the competition but unfortunately didn't manage to get these ones done before the closing date, and I didn't want to submit one of my old ones.

Today was one of those days that on my way home I was already planning to lock myself in the shed and try some ideas that I had been cooking for a few days but didn't get up to executing it until now.

Here is another one from the same batch as the number two one . It has similarities with the second one above

Looks like the Spirit of Ecstacy letting herself unwind.

G

Smoking is such a powerful addiction . Been trying to shrug it off for a while now but everytime I dig out one of this ones I just feel the urge to smoke it out